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Kalve
A human male who was forced to work in underground mines in order for his family to be safe. Krulem's death gifted him with the ability to move incredibly fast, and he began hunting down the man who had blackmailed him. This led to an encounter with Guardian Aldrich and Kalve ended up joining his crew. Childhood Kalve was born as the illegal third child of an impoverished family living in a rundown shantytown. His older brother Reeve, harbored anger towards him for his very existence, as the tax on him pushed their family ever deeper into debt. The other children would mock Kalve for being a third, and Reeve was forced to defend him as family sticks together. Kalve looked up to Reeve as a protector, but Reeve still nurtured feelings of resentment. He found extra work, trying to pay for the extra tax on his brother's existence, and began to realize that Kalve was more loved by their parents. Kalve understood that his presence was a burden on their family. Reeve became more and more aggressive to him over time. Even though he defended him from bullies, Reeve believed their taunts to be accurate. Kalve was inferior. When Reeve became obsessed with his study of the blade, Kalve also tried his hand at it and found he was not as good. However, his journeys to practice with the teachers he could find introduced him to a darker side of his community, and he began to slip into a life of crime. Kalve committed numerous acts of petty theft in the name of providing for his family. Eventually, he was caught, jailed, sentenced, and then someone paid for his freedom. He found himself in the service of a crime lord, whom he had to serve or else risk putting his family in further trouble (legal or, as his owner occasionally suggested, violent). For years he worked under the cruel man and was sent to work in deep mines after his owner lost a bet. Kalve had worked in the mines for over a year when a local revolutionary group attacked them. The ground shook and dust clogged the passages. Kalve tried to run to safety, and suddenly he blazed past everything around him. As the tunnels collapsed, he emerged in the sunlight for the first time in ages. He regarded his surroundings in shock, trying to understand how he had moved so fast. Meeting the Guardian Finally free, Kalve used his newfound powers to get off that world and not return home, but find revenge. A sword came into his possession that reminded him of Reeve and he used it to butcher the thugs who stood between him and the man who had owned him for the past many years. Kalve nearly succeeded in his goal, but was stopped just short of his vengeance by Aldrich, who had been hunting the mysterious speedster. Kalve's story provided a new dimension to Aldrich's understanding of the situation and he ended up letting the crime lord die. Knowing the world believed him dead, Kalve thought it best to keep some distance from his family, though he ached to see them again. When first learning that Aldrich possessed a time machine, Kalve was excited because he thought he could go back and gain back all the years he lost away from them. Then he hesitated, wondering if they were better off. Kalve had changed much in his time away. He was just confused. So for the time, he agreed to become a companion of Aldrich on his adventures. Aldrich, on Amy's insistence, makes Kalve hang up his sword. As a Companion A test of Kalve's powers leads to Aldrich being able to defeat Takara. The newman had been breeding a collection of the ice monsters from Scilis 6. Aldrich orders they be massacred, and Kalve obliges at super speed. After this, he hangs his sword again. Takara's subsequent escape from their ship involved sabotaging the time reactor, which created strange reality distortions spanning space and time. Kalve found himself at the end of one of the ship's hallways, hearing the others crying out for him. He runs full speed down the hall but does not seem to ever reach the door. As he continues, he pauses, believing to hear the voices of his family. However, Amy defeats her clone and unmakes the prison, freeing Kalve. Kalve and Amy use the damaged machine to find Aldrich, but it will only take them to the day of his death. Kalve is shocked to see Aldrich as an old pacifist living on a forest planet. Amy recasts her personality through a different lens, and the Good Amy fixes the distortion. Kalve's body shatters and he awakens just before everything happened. He and Amy agree not to tell Aldrich of the fate they glimpsed for him. While Aldrich faced off with the sentient Eye of Tarsus, Kalve and Amy were in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with Fenrin. When the wolfman found out that Dark Tyros had been manipulating him, he made a secret arrangement with Kalve that he would seek out and assassinate Dark Tyros and his allies. Kalve keeps this a secret, and lies to the others, saying he killed Fenrin. When on the forest world, Aldrich works with Ted to face an incursion on their territory by a meat tree. Kalve is focused on helping the people there, but notices it is the same planet where he saw Aldrich die. Amy believes this is when he will have his change, as he has met Ted. When the tree invades the camp, Aldrich prepares to burn the whole thing. In an attempt to dissuade him, Amy reveals what she and Kalve saw of Aldrich's death, leading him to reject that future and burn the tree. Kalve is struck by a thorn saving someone, and believes he is going to die. However, Aldrich and Ted give him the adapted tree blight that prevents the invading bodies from communicating, and Kalve becomes the first person to survive an infection. Called back to Earth by John Beckett, Kalve and the others walk into a trap set by Takara. Aldrich and Amy are kidnapped, and Kalve teams up with John to rescue them. Kalve takes his sword down from the wall. The two of them attack and free the prisoners, including two behemoth brothers, mutants named Erik and Brody. Kalve accompanies Aldrich to the planet where a xenoagricultural corporation is embroiled in a conflict with the local tribes. Dark Tyros unleashes groups of snake-men from their burrows in the mountain, who invade the countryside. Kalve is the leader of one of five groups that investigate the sites of the burrows, and he arrives to find it already empty. Ogmad, the strongest of the burrowing snakes, stayed behind and attacks Kalve's troops, killing almost half. Kalve sprints to the closest burrow, finding another snake who sprays venom attacking those soldiers there. He rescues Amy, who was bit. Aldrich's plan of consolidating the survivors leads to Kalve joining Danyg at another base, where they wait for rescue. Aldrich informs them of his plan, and Kalve participates in the attack on the gathered snake-men. On Thamus's home-world, Aldrich's crew aids in a militia attack on a fortified base. During this attack, Kalve discovers his powers fail in proximity to the fortress, and learns of the ability of a Gobulin reactor to restrict the use of power like his within a certain radius. In the assault, he enters the base and cuts down man after man. He spots Ghalen, and begins to pursue him. He loses his sword in a soldier's skull, and stuffs a pistol into his waistband in order to shimmy down a pillar and chase the fleeing Ghalen. Ghalen runs out a secret exit, and comes face to face with Banar Vendiss's secret detachment that was climbing the rain-slicked stairs to this door. Ghalen smiles wickedly and draws his swords, but is tackled off by Kalve. The two roll down a hill and Kalve pursues Ghalen to the shelter beneath their landing zone. Here Ghalen finally throws a sword to Kalve's feet and ignites his own. He strikes the ground and tells Kalve to take the sword cross the line and kill him. Kalve considers, then says no before drawing the pistol and shooting Ghalen in the face. But I will take the sword. When Kalve emerges from the lift, he finds Droge waiting for him in the landing zone. The mercenary attacks, and Kalve is able to defend himself. He retreats under the brunt of Droge's relentless attacks, until he steps over a marked line. Droge throws a knife, which Kalve catches to his surprise, realizing he has crossed out of the Gobulin field. The tide turns with Kalve at super speed outside the barrier and Droge flying around. Droge strips Kalve's sword away, but fails to realize he has left himself vulnerable by standing outside of the Gobulin field. He arms a sticky grenade, and Kalve runs at him so fast, pushing the grenade back into his own hand and knocking him down. Droge reacts too fast, blasting the grenade before it can detonate, destroying his hand. Droge fires with his sidearm at Kalve, who dodges the bullets and cuts off Droge's other hand. Droge tries to fly away, but Kalve ignites the sword he took from Ghalen and throws it at super speed, cutting into Droge's back and destroying his jet pack. Droge falls to his death and Kalve takes a ship back into the fortress, where Banar and Aldrich have secured a victory. A visit to the terminally ill Cuik is revealed to be a trap when pods containing web-like creatures appear and attack. Kalve tries to fight them but is cornered. Even his speed is not enough to escape and he is captured by them. He is delivered to Takara, where the newman strips him of his powers by implanting a miniature Gobulin reactor into his forearm. Attempting to remove it would cause him to bleed to death. Kalve is rescued, but shaken. When trying to stop a time traveller from exterminating the people that committed genocide against his, Kalve and co. are caught in another time distortion. This time, Kalve pursues the familiar voices and finds that he has summoned people from his past from across space, including his brother Reeve. Kalve tries to lead these confused people to safety. He discovers Amy as she kills Aldrich, and is wounded by her. She escapes, and he heals inside a chrysalis chamber, then using the time reactor to travel back to the exact moment he left. He then tracks Amy. Kalve encounters Danyg, who speaks like a man possessed, with some of Aldrich and Amara's memories. Kalve realizes that Danyg was also pulled here across space, but something is wrong with him. He insists he is the Guardian, and that he knows something the other does not. Following Danyg, Kalve and the others witness Noven attempting to manipulate the blue orb and the subsequent injury sustained by both Noven and Danyg. He and Amy place the two into chrysalis chambers, though Kalve knows Noven is going to die. He quietly takes Amy aside, gives her a bag of supplies and tells her to leave. Pick a direction and go. She will find civilization here, eventually. It is a world teeming with prosperous cities. She leaves, understanding that this is a mercy not a banishment. When Kalve returns, Dark Tyros has arrived. He is ushering all the others aboard his ship, urging them to escape from the "pirates." Enraged, Kalve attacks Dark Tyros, but Reeve leaps between them. He parries each of Kalve's blows and drives him back. Kalve is stunned as they all leave together. He notices that the cube aboard their ship which Aldrich had been protecting is gone. He pays a surgeon to give Noven intensive cybernetic repair, desperate for his half of the knowledge received during the time distortion. Under New Management After a funeral is held for Aldrich, Skorio demands to know who the Guardian's secret army answers to now. An election takes place, where Kalve is seemingly the popular choice. He however, declines. As does John. Thus, Danyg becomes the first unanimously elected Guardian. Kalve and Danyg work closely together during his first few months. They trace a series of bombings and discover it was the work of a new Aldrich, corrupted by torture and continual regeneration within the cube by Dark Tyros. Kalve is disturbed and angry to know what has become of the man who was once his friend. A series of conflicts culminate in an all-out assault on Aldrich's seat of power. Kalve breaches the defenses and races to the throne room, where he confronts Aldrich and Reeve. He duels Reeve and manages to defeat his brother, cutting off his hand. Aldrich urges Kalve to kill Reeve, but Kalve hesitates, then turns and attacks Aldrich. Aldrich duels him, but is disarmed. Kalve prepares to finish him, but a blast hits his hand, severing it from his arm. Kalve looks, stunned, as Reeve shoots him again with a hidden sidearm, knocking Kalve over the edge into the abyss below. Rebirth At the bottom of the pit is a wide field designed to catch fallen trash (or, occasionally, new recruits undergoing some hazing). Kalve's body falls into this and is taken away to a furnace where trash is sorted and taken care of. His body is found by the many small, furred aliens that work there and they deliver him to the human doctor, Harlan. Harlan saves his life and even provides an attachment allowing Kalve to make use of a metallic pincher in place of his lost hand. When a guard show up threatening the workers, he nearly strikes the doctor before Kalve finally awakens, and grabs the soldier around the throat with his metallic claw, thrusting the man into a vat of molten metal and holding him there until he collapses. When Kalve awakens, he is again without a hand. His stunt with the vat destroyed the other one. The doctor and the aliens, called Etaws, have fled the base after it was taken. The doctor was not quite a slave, but he will not abandon the Etaws as they are the only family he has. The Etaws adore Kalve, as to their small minds it is he that fell from the chute, killed their oppressor, and then they were able to go free. Kalve takes his group to Ted's reservation. On the way, he acquires a new robotic hand and a new magnetic glove, for the opposite hand as his original. He says he intends to get that one back. They hitch a ride with a nomadic retired fighter named Aariesh, who observes Kalve struggling to practice his sword-craft. He has difficulty with his robotic hand, which Harlan insists is not due to the craftsmanship, but rather the neurological connection. Aariesh observes that something is bothering him about it. When they arrive Kalve sees how popular Ted has become over his many years here, and the more he wonder about it the more he is certain the Guardian sent him here on purpose. It makes him wonder about the nature of punishments. Aariesh trains Kalve in swordplay, and says he is so entranced by the peace here he will stay. Aariesh scolds Kalve for still desiring revenge even after all of Aariesh's teachings. The old man is a pacifist, but a realist. Ted, at first suspicious of Aariesh, finds that he is a great mentor the the children of the men and women who live in the camp. Kalve's parting goodbyes are difficult. He meets Aariesh at dawn as the old man is stretching. He asks if Kalve is still set on going, which Kalve replies he is. Aariesh nods sadly and says he made a mistake teaching him. Kalve is hurt, but tries not to show it and leaves. As a Revenant Kalve finally travels back home. He sees his mother, now old in a care home. She is visited by Reeve. Kalve waits for Reeve outside, and is attacked by a few of his men. Reeve gets away, but Kalve takes a prisoner. This man leads him to Reeve's hideout. Kalve attacks and kills the two guards posted outside. He duels Reeve, struggling with his intentions. He tries to imagine what Harlan would say. The stoic doctor would've disapproved. As Aariesh did. As Ted did. Aldrich would have understood, the old Aldrich. That thought almost makes Kalve stumble. Would Danyg understand? The battle comes to a head as both brothers are evenly matched. They strike in wide blows, and catch the blow in each of their fancy robot hands. Kalve offers Reeve one last chance to surrender. Reeve, goaded beyond control, refuses to believe that Kalve could ever beat him. They pull back, swords swing up and chop down. Kalve cries out as Reeve's blade bites into his shoulder, but is stopped by the metal plate put there by Harlan. Reeve, on the other hand, has no such plate. Kalve holds him as he dies, and Reeve reaches out to touch Kalve's face before dying. Kalve burns his body in a funeral pyre and walks away without looking back. Kalve goes to see his mother for the first time since his childhood. Old and ailing, she still recognizes him. She is in a stage of dementia, and he finds tears coming down his face when he tells her where he has been. She says she always knew he would come back. She says Reeve has been keeping her company, though he hasn't been back in a few days. Kalve finds a lump in his throat. He intended to tell her of Reeve's death, but finds he is unable. He tells her Reeve went away and won't be back for a long time. She nods and says when he comes back he must come straight to her. She has something important to tell him. Kalve further presses his captive for the location of Aldrich's hideout. When he arrives, he picks off Aldrich's guard before confronting him. He tells Aldrich he has already killed one brother, and would not want to do another. Aldrich, however, leaps to the duel. If Reeve and Kalve were perfectly matched, then this outcome is already decided. Aldrich could beat Reeve in eight out of ten duels. The duel is finished when Kalve and Aldrich have both been disarmed by a fall. Using their magnetic gloves, they each pull on Aldrich's sword, the one that was originally Kalve's. It shakes in the air between them. Kalve twists his hand so the sword stands upright, then pretends to falter, letting Aldrich pull it towards himself. At the last second, Kalve re-activates his glove and yanks on the hilt from across the room, causing the top blade to sharply swing down and cut into Aldrich. Kalve crosses the room in a few swift bounds, calling the blade into his hands and striking the former Guardian relentlessly, severing his hand, his head and spilling his guts. Kalve tries not to mourn too much. The real Aldrich is buried on Earth. This is a twisted monster. Dark Tyros is the final of the three. He was shot down over Desolatus by Danyg, and so Kalve goes to his last known location. Here, he has to wait for his engines to reset after suffering some light damage. He waits outside cleaning his blade. Dark Tyros soon emerges and announces he is taking the ship and returning to battle with Danyg. Kalve rises and stands in his way. They engage in a duel on the barren surface of Desolatus. Kalve begins to realize that Dark Tyros is indeed better than Aldrich, perhaps better than him. When the ships engines begin to glow, Dark Tyros betrays the ambition to flee the fight and steal the ship. So Kalve does first, knowing Dark Tyros away. He closes the door, starts the engine, and flies away, unaware that Dark Tyros was able to climb aboard just in time. Kalve is taken by surprise and knocked unconscious. Once Again a Speed Demon Kalve awakens as a prisoner, watched over by two guards. He is tied by the hands and his sword is held by one of them. He fakes an injury to get one to come near, and then jumps up and grabs him round the neck with his legs. He pulls his sword through the air with his glove, which cuts the other guard on it's flight. He grabs the sword, kills the first guard, cuts his bonds, and quickly runs over to finish off the second. Kalve peers out the doors of his ship to see where Dark Tyros has taken them. He sees a small army surrounding the steps of a dilapidated senate building, sandbag fortifications provided protection against some enemy force. Danyg, he realizes. By listening in on their communications, he understands the situation. Dark Tyros and Takara made an alliance when the former realized his companions were being hunted down. The newman now has the ability to bring his people back from the other dimension. Kalve ties a tourniquet and cuts into the flesh of his forearm, removing the miniature Gobulin reactor. He bursts from the ship and one last time moves as a blaze of death through the heavily armed soldiers, despite sustaining some wounds. Dark Tyros creeps from the building, wielding Nok's bomblet rifle, and watches the pattern of Kalve's movement. Dark Tyros fires in an arc, which intersects Kalve's movement, spraying his blood across the white marble. Kalve slumps against the wall as Dark Tyros walks closer, reloading the weapon. He weakly throws the sword, and Dark Tyros easily dodges, laughing. Kalve then activates his glove which pulls the sword back, cutting through Dark Tyros and killing him. The sword flies into his hand, then falls to the ground as Kalve dies. Kalve's death was witnessed from afar by the likes of Noven, Fenrin and Beth, who mourned for him. He succeeded in clearing the steps of soldiers, which allowed the Guardian's companions to enter the building and free Danyg. Kalve was buried besides his mother on his home-world. The death of the Guardian-That-Never-Was was felt deeply by all who survived him. Disrupted Timeline In the Disrupted Timeline, Kalve's first notable action was joining a team with John Beckett, Foray, Noven and Tom to hunt down Fwatk. Fwatk had successfully cloned himself before the team found him, and Kalve managed to kill one of them with an enchanted Krolor sword. At the onset of the Guardian Civil War, Kalve tries to assassinate the mentally unstable Takara, believing it unsafe for him to be alive. He is stopped by Kate, and their clash is one of the first conflicts of the Guardian Civil War. Kalve leaves when Aariesh sides with Kate. When negotiations fail, a true battle breaks out, and Kalve accidentally wounds Aariesh in a duel. Kalve learns of the prison vessel at sea where Takara had been held for some time. After Danyg and Reina activate the S'cha-ckl'ueu Arc, Kalve is the first to discover his power restored when he knocks John over before he can shoot Ted. His sword is taken by Foray, and John traps him in a bubble of time where everything moves slower. When Danyg summons a powerful storm to rip the building apart, Kalve is freed and grabs his sword before fleeing. Dack's group receives an SOS from the prison where Takara is being held. They realize Kalve is responsible and fear he has already killed the newman. However, they arrive to find Takara still alive, who says that Kalve only wanted to know about the sea prison. Kalve, Noven and Ted forms breach the base, freeing the prisoners there. Kalve fights Foray in a Gobulin field and defeats the android. He tells the other to leave without him, and frees his brother Reeve from the depths of the prison. When they get topside, the Annihilation Wave has begun. Kalve runs Reeve to safety and warns him to keep his head down. Kalve is later discovered to be the Bane, and enlisted by the dragonlords and the former Apocalypse Lords. Kalve kills Miranda Kaur and Thomas Carson, but leaves Mechnos alive to cover his escape. Later, Kalve is among a group that goes to Katroiris to stop Lossoriawath. Kalve attacks the Ancient Prince, but is distracted by NgukGluk. They are forced to evacuate the island when Tkulthe awakens. Kalve encounters Reeve, who, despite his warning, becomes involved with Pikejacks, and being complicit in a bombing that injures his stepfather. Kalve is too ashamed to face his mother, but works through a companion to find out if she knows where Reeve is. Kalve attacks in a fit of rage, killing many Pikejacks on the way. He confronts Reeve and furiously demands to know what happened to make Reeve so demented. Reeve almost breaks down talking about their parents after Kalve left. Kalve attacks and defeats him. He presses his sword to his brother's throat but is stopped by his companion arriving with his mother. His mother cannot believe what she is seeing. Kalve explains all the atrocities that Reeve has committed, both in this world and in their original one. His mother has tears running down her cheeks and she closes her eyes, she quietly tells him to do it. It takes a second for Kalve to hear her, and then he looks over. All the rage bleeds out of his body. She just gave him permission to kill her son. He looks down at Reeve, who is avoiding all eye contact. His jaw tightens as he unsuccessfully fights tears. All the years he spent with his family after Kalve left. Years of not being good enough. Kalve lowers his sword and helps Reeve up. Kalve tells him he will answer for his crimes, but not like this. Kalve and Aariesh encounter a drug called Velocitium, which temporarily grants its user speed equivalent to Kalve's own. It was originally made by Empire scientists, among whom is Moe. Moe becomes addicted to it and speeds around causing unintentional havoc. Moe knows that he must keep moving or else the energy will build up and he will combust. Kalve tries to convince him to quit but he can't. Kalve leads Moe into the desert, where they are caught by one of Takara's web creatures that feeds on energy. Kalve cuts himself free but Moe is ensnared. The energy his body is producing tastes similar to the energy the creature feeds on, but of a slightly different variance such that the creature does not absorb it. Kalve realizes what is going to happen too late, and Moe's body explodes, killing both him and the creature. Kalve cannot face Moe's daughter Jessica, and leaves in shame. He learn that the blood of someone using Velocitium is flecked with green. He pursues a group of street pushers selling the drug. He goes up against Gideon, who is able to outrun him. Wraith and Ryan tell Kalve it is because his sword limits his aerodynamics. So as Kalve and Gideon race around a great vertical loop, he drops his sword at the height of the loop. He runs as fast as he can, overtaking Gideon, catches his sword at the bottom and strikes horizontally. Gideon runs straight into the strike and is cut nearly in half. During the A.I. revolt caused by Nightmare, Kalve attacks the human supremacist base above which the Verdant Dawn hovers menacingly. He and Noven race ahead. Noven holds up a door, and the men on the other side shoot him repeatedly. His body shakes and he collapses, crushed under the door, but not before Kalve was able to run underneath. He kills the man carrying the key which would have set off the explosion, and sets about killing the others present, including Uncle Jack. However, suddenly, Reeve runs in on a gangplank high above, retrieves the key, and detonates the bomb and Kalve watches stunned. He can do nothing but run as the fireball first engulfs his brother then the corpses he left behind. Kalve runs so fast but the explosion is catching up so he throws away his sword and it is lost in the fire. Kalve races out of the exploding base and falls in the mud on a hill. He watches in stunned silence before being shot in the leg. Laura approaches, on her murderous rampage of those she believed complicit in Tyros's death. Before she can finish it, Beth arrives and kills her. Beth regards Kalve, and the two converse, ending with Beth leaving him there. Kalve struggles to his feet, leaning on the tree, recalling his fate would be something "he could not run from." But I can stand to face it, he thinks. Beth was right to leave him. He thinks about his failure to save Moe, his failure to stop Reeve. How much it has cost. The Verdant Dawn, now devoid of any intelligence to operate it, slowly sinks from the sky, accelerating towards the ground, where is smashes down and obliterates, amongside the compound, Kalve.